On Saturday, Nov. 13, the La Salle women’s basketball team defeated Rider 67 – 58 in overtime. This Homecoming-weekend win is the first win for the women’s team this season after their close loss last week to Coppin State in their first game of the season. This was the seventh time that the Explorers faced the Broncs at Tom Gola Arena. This is the first time that the Explorers have beaten the Broncs at home since 2010.
The first quarter started off strong for the Explorers as they scored twice as many points as the Broncs, ending the quarter with a score of 20 – 10. Unlike the men’s team last week, the women’s team managed to sink nearly all of their free throws which put them at a significant advantage over the Broncs. Although Rider tried to catch up in the second quarter and managed to score another 10 points, the halftime score was 38 – 20 in favor of La Salle. After the third quarter, however, Rider had begun to catch up, closing the gap to just four points — 42 – 38. Rider still wasn’t done putting up a fight, and at the end of the fourth quarter, both teams had scored 50 points, and overtime began.
The Explorers began overtime with three consecutive three-pointers scored by juniors Jordon Lewis and Amy Jacobs and sophomore Jaye Haynes. Rider scored eight points, but La Salle scored more than double that, and the final score was 67 – 58.
Haynes scored 19 points throughout the game and senior Kayla Spruill scored 16 and earned 17 rebounds, her career record.
The women’s game wasn’t as full as the men’s game later in the day, but the Explorers’ community still showed up in full force to support their team.
The women’s team will be playing their next game against the Drexel dragons tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. at Drexel.
The La Salle Collegian 